In Defense of Dragons
by StBridget
Summary: Being attacked is bad enough. Being attacked and shifting into a dragon when you're not expecting it is worse. Mary has to deal with both. AU dragon!verse.


**Hawaii five-0 is property of CBS and its creators.  
**

 **A/N: Several people wanted to know if Mary would be back or if she was gone for good. Here she is! Coming to terms with what she is.**

"Steve, I'm in trouble."

Steve sighed as his sister's voice came over the phone. Mary had been doing so well lately. He supposed it was inevitable that something would happen, though. "What is it this time?"

"I've been arrested."

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose against a headache that threatened behind his eyes. Mary had really done it this time. He should have known that a call from his sister at 1 am her time couldn't be good. "What did you do?"

Mary started babbling. "It wasn't my fault, I swear! He was going to rape me, and I fought back and something snapped, and now he's saying I attacked him ,and I don't know what to do!"

"Wait, what?" Steve was outraged. "He tried to rape you, and they arrested you? What were they thinking? They should know it was self-defense. Who's in charge? I'll call them and make sure you're released immediately."

"But, Steve, I had claws!"

That stopped Steve, on two fronts. First, that definitely made things more problematic with the arrest. Second, Mary hadn't manifested any signs of her dragon nature before. In fact, she'd been deep in denial when Steve told her, and it hadn't been mentioned since. Poor kid had to be doubly terrified. "Okay, Mary, take a deep breath and tell me what happened, slowly."

Mary complied. "I was at a club, and this guy approached me. He was really hot, and I let him buy me a drink. We talked, we danced, and he walked me to my car. Then he started forcing himself on me, saying I'd been teasing him all evening, and I shouldn't resist because he knew I wanted it."

"Then what happened?"

"I don't know!" Mary wailed. "I pushed against him, but he was too strong, and he ripped my dress, and then I just felt something snap and all of a sudden these big, long, claws were coming out of the ends of my hands, and I slashed out, and he let me go, and I called the police, and they came, and he said I came after him with a knife for no reason, and they couldn't find one, and they arrested me for assault."

Steve was beginning to piece things together. "How badly was he hurt?"

"I don't know. Pretty bad, I guess. The officer who questioned me said he'd probably lose an eye. I don't even know what I did!"

"You're a dragon. You shifted under the stress. Well, partially shifted," Steve explained.

"No! No, I'm not a dragon. Danny's a dragon, not me. I'm normal!"

Steve really didn't want to have to go into this again, but Mary wasn't going to be able to move beyond this if she didn't come to terms with the fact that she was a dragon. "Yes, you are. We both are. Mom and Dad just never told us and made sure we never shifted. We've been through this, Mary."

Mary let that go and focused on the more immediate problem. "What am I going to do?"

"I don't know. Let me make a few calls and see what I can do."

"Will you come, Steve? I'm scared."

"Yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can. Just hang in there, Mare."

Danny was by his side as soon as Steve hung up, sensing his roiling emotions. "What's up, babe?"

"Mary's in trouble. Apparently, some guy she met at a bar tried to rape her, and she shifted part way and clawed him up pretty good. He claimed she attacked him, and the police arrested her."

Danny whistled. "Way to have to deal with being a dragon. You make the plane reservations, I'll make some calls. I know the detective there who tries to handle all the cases involving dragons. I'll see if I can get him to take over Mary's case."

Steve was grateful for Danny's connections as a dragon. Danny knew dragons in law enforcement in most major cities, and it came in handy sometimes, like now. "Will you come, too? I could really use your expertise. I don't really know how to handle this."

By _this_ , Danny knew Steve meant Mary's shift, not arrest. Steve could empathize, having only learned he was a dragon about a year ago, but he still didn't have the knowledge to answer Mary's questions. That's where Danny could help. "Of course, babe. I planned on it."

"Wait, what about Matt?"

"Call Lou," Danny advised. "I'm sure he and Renee will be happy to watch Matt for a couple of days."

Within a matter of hours, Steve and Danny were at the police station where Mary was being held, talking to Danny's contact, Lt. Mike Gold.

"I've gotten put in charge of her case," Gold said. "I'm working on getting the charges dropped. If it were a regular rape case, it would be pretty easy—witnesses saw them leave together, and another couple leaving at the same time heard the commotion. It's pretty clear he attacked her."

"So, what's the problem?" Steve demanded, belligerently. Danny put a hand on his arm to calm him.

Gold sighed. "The problem is the cops who responded are a couple of low-level beat cops with no knowledge of dragons. They were pretty freaked by the extent of the damage and pretty insistent it must have been a knife, even though they didn't find one at the scene. And I really don't want to have to explain the existence of magical creatures to them."

Danny clapped him on the back. "You'll work it out. I have confidence in you. In the meantime, can we see Mary?"

"I'd rather see the creep who attacked her," Steve muttered. "I'd like to show him what an angry dragon can _really_ do."

Once again, Danny put his hand on Steve's arm. "Not helping matters, babe. Besides," he chuckled, "I think he learned his lesson. Sounds like Mary did a pretty good job of sticking up for herself."

"That she did," Gold confirmed. "I'd be proud of her if I were you, Commander."

"I am," Steve said. "Okay, let's see her."

Gold led Steve and Danny to an interview room and brought Mary in. Steve was relieved to see she wasn't restrained, but her arms were crossed defensively, even though the rest of her body language projected fear and dejection.

"How are you doing, kiddo?" Steve asked. He reached across the table to touch her reassuringly, but she flinched away.

"I want out of here. I didn't mean to hurt him!"

"You should have," Steve said. "You did the right thing. You should have fought tooth and nail." He winced. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best choice of words.

"Lt. Gold is working on it," Danny said. "He should have you out soon."

"Good," Mary said. "This whole thing is really freaking me out."

"Understandable," Danny said. "The situation is traumatic enough without adding. . .complications."

Mary finally uncrossed her arms and held out her hands, revealing long, curved talons at the ends. "You mean these."

"Yeah, those." Steve and Danny were both relieved she hadn't manifested herself any further. A scaled, snouted victim would have been much harder to explain.

Mary waved her hands in agitation. Danny and Steve had to duck out of the way of the flailing claws. "I can't get rid of them! I want them to go away!"

Danny gently grasped her hands and put them on the table. "That's why I'm here. We're going to work on that."

"Good," Mary said, emphatically. "I never want to see them again."

Steve sighed. He really didn't want to have this conversation here, but it looked like he was going to have to. "You're going to have to get used to it, Mare. You're a dragon."

"I don't want to be a dragon!" Mary said, almost hysterical. "I want to be normal!"

Danny took control of the situation. "Being a dragon _is_ normal," he snapped. "There's more of us than you think. It may not have been _your_ normal before, but it is now, and you're going to have to face that fact."

"Look, Mary," Steve cut in, putting a hand comfortingly over hers, "you don't have to live like a dragon if you don't want to. I don't, most of the time. Neither does Danny. Matt spends more time in dragon form than we do. But, you do need to learn to control it. You don't want something like this happening again."

Mary took a ragged breath. "I can live with that."

"Good," Steve said. "Let's get out of here."

Teaching Mary to shift turned out to be a bigger project than Danny had bargained for. She got rid of the claws easily enough once she calmed down—she didn't want them, so it was easy for her to will them away. Getting them back was more difficult. She resisted, then got frustrated because she couldn't do it, which led to them popping out at odd times. At one point, she even shifted into a full-grown purple dragon—in her living room. Steve offered to pay for the furniture she crushed. Danny moved the lessons outside.

Finally, Mary learned to control her shifting, but she wouldn't learn anything else. She remained stubbornly mind-blind, even though Steve was pretty sure she had psychic powers to rival his. She wouldn't even learn to fly.

"Come on, Mary," Steve cajoled. "You don't know what you're missing. It's amazing."

"I don't care," Mary said, stubbornly. "I refuse to put up with this more than I have to. I learned to shift like you wanted me to, now leave me alone."

"At least let me take you for a ride," Steve cajoled.

"No! Why can't you let it be?" Mary demanded. "Can't you see I don't want to be part of your world? I'm mean, Danny's pretty and all, and you're pretty impressive, but I've had a hard enough time fitting in all my life without adding this, too. I just want to be left alone!"

Finally, Steve gave in. After a week, he and Danny returned to Hawaii, leaving Mary to cope as best she could on her own. "I wish I could have done more," Steve said.

"You did the best you could," Danny said. "We both did. There's nothing more you could have done."

"I guess," Steve said. "I just keep thinking there must have been."

"There wasn't." Danny decided some humor was needed to lighten the situation. "After all, you can lead a dragon to water, but you can't make her drink."

Steve just groaned.


End file.
